WHAT these teams need now  what cricket needs, but rarely has had  is someone with authority and reason to bang heads together, starting with the captains. If this seems too schoolmarmish, so be it. Evidently, gentlemen's agreements and appeals to better instincts do not work.

Most of the offences that soured an otherwise fine Test match were petty. The exception was the charge and counter-charge of racism, of which more later. Blatant dissent. Frivolous appealing. Refusing to walk when caught at slip. Refusing to walk when caught anywhere. Petulant and cynical slowing of the over rate. These would be frowned on in junior cricket. These ARE frowned on in junior cricket.

The umpiring was poor but, partly, the players have only themselves to blame. Umpiring is a tough enough job anyway. Aggravation from and between the players only makes it tougher. It began with Australian captain Ricky Ponting's double standard and mute protest when dismissed on the first day and did not abate. Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson would have found themselves second-guessing every decision.

So it is that Bucknor might have stood in his last Test match. He was culpable here, but a victim, too.

Everyone was guilty, including the umpires, and not forgetting media who forgot themselves at Indian captain Anil Kumble's media conference and applauded him for sticking it to Australia.

Kumble miscounted anyway when he said only one team was playing in the spirit of the game. India's sportsmanship at times was as lacking as Australia's, for instance when using elaborate ruses to slow the over rate on the last day. India got the rough end of the stick, but was as sore a loser as Australia was a graceless winner.

What to do? Calls for sackings are knee-jerk, the threat to abandon the tour nonsensical. Apart from anything else, the all-powerful television moguls here and in India would not countenance it. The tour will go on, and so will the captains.

So law and order it must be. Once previously, in 2003, the Australian team was shocked by the public backlash to boorish behaviour in the West Indies, and drew up its own code of conduct, tighter even than the international code. It changed Australia's ways. It is not nearly the overt bully it was. But in Sydney it relapsed.

Adam Gilchrist is the team's hallmark of probity, but he was crucially involved in the erroneous and critical decision against Rahul Dravid on day five. I do not think Gilchrist is a hypocrite, so I think there must be a deeper malaise.

It is time for the riot act to be read again. But by who? Ponting, in the first instance, but he is a) unrepentant and b) compromised. Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland? Certainly, but he is not naturally a headkicker. ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed? He is a headkicker, but also Australian. In the eyes of some in the complex international cricket community, that makes him suspicious.

Ultimately, it must be Ponting. In cricket, the captain leads. Ponting was clearly in command when Australia took to the field for Sunday's final session, gathering the team around him and urging it on. He must stand up again now. So must Kumble.

Cricket struggles for strong, consistent leadership. This was evident again in the Harbhajan case. Referee Mike Procter refused even to consider a charge against Yuvraj Singh for patently obvious dissent in Melbourne, yet banned Harbhajan for three Tests for a racist epithet. Harbhajan was foolish, but that is all. It is manifestly a harsh penalty.

Each case must be considered on its merits, but the historical context cannot be ignored. Overwhelmingly, in all spheres, it is whites who have practised racism against non-whites. Yet in cracking down on racism, cricket makes as one of its first examples a non-white player. This was always bound to sit poorly with Indians and in India.

With much and due respect to Andrew Symonds, Australia's sense of grievance is a little unctuous. Australia says Ponting was bound by the racism code to report Harbhajan's remark: funny how the letter of the law suddenly was so important. But India has done itself no favour by bringing a counter-charge against Brad Hogg, since it is so obviously tit for tat. India also suffers from a lack of wise leadership.

The very least that must transpire in the eight days before the third Test is a meaningful meeting between the captains and a public handshake.

It shames all on both sides to say that they could do worse than to take their lead from the youngest player in the match. Nineteen-year-old Ishant Sharma was robbed of Symonds' wicket in Australia's first innings by a decision so bad that Symonds later admitted publicly that he had been out. Instead, he made a big, unbeaten hundred.

As the players left the field at the end of the Australian innings, Sharma would have been forgiven for keeping his distance, yet he alone of the Indians went to Symonds to offer his congratulations. If a teenager playing in only his third Test can display such grace, so can and should everyone.

1199554570951-theage.com.auhttp://www.theage.com.au/news/cricket/if-petulance-has-no-place-at-junior-level-it-has-no-place-at-all-in-tests/2008/01/07/1199554570951.htmltheage.com.auThe Age2008-01-08If petulance has no place at junior level, it has no place at all in TestsGreg BaumSportCrickethttp://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2008/01/07/svPONTING_wideweb__470x345,0.jpg

Ricky Ponting's reprieve after appeals for caught behind in this instance set in train a sorry series of events.

470345Craig Goldinghttp://www.theage.com.au/news/cricket/indian-tour-on-hold/2008/01/07/1199554570945.htmlIndian tour on holdtext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/cricket/ponting-must-be-sacked/2008/01/07/1199554570948.htmlPonting 'must be sacked'text/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/cricket/tour-hangs-on-appeal-result/2008/01/07/1199554570954.htmlTour hangs on appeal resulttext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/cricket/defiant-indians-endure-a-twohour-journey-to-nowhere/2008/01/07/1199554570957.htmlDefiant Indians endure a two-hour journey to nowheretext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/cricket/captain-umpires-burnt-in-effigy/2008/01/07/1199554570960.htmlCaptain, umpires burnt in effigytext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/cricket/tourists-vow-to-act-on-any-verbal-abuse/2008/01/07/1199554570963.htmlTourists vow to act on any verbal abusetext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/cricket/australians-cry-babies-says-akram/2008/01/07/1199554570966.htmlAustralians cry babies, says Akramtext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/cricket/defiant-ponting-stands-by-his-men/2008/01/07/1199554570969.htmlDefiant Ponting stands by his mentext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/cricket/another-hussey-makes-a-run-for-national-team/2008/01/07/1199554570972.htmlAnother Hussey makes a run for national teamtext/html-documenthttp://www.theage.com.au/news/cricket/hayden-may-miss-perth-with-hamstring-injury/2008/01/07/1199554570975.htmlHayden may miss Perth with hamstring injurytext/html-documenthttp://media.theage.com.au/?rid=34450<b>Video</b> Kumble slams Aussie spiritvideo/standard